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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Summer Approaches

Now that Memorial Day is over we are moving towards the summer. This is the time of year when all of our senses are alive. Fragrant, bright flowers, song birds, tasty fruits and vegetables, sun on our skin, the mind wanders. It is also a good time of year to focus your meditation on one of the senses. Let's take sounds. What the ear hears are the objects of the hearing sense. But, if there were no sounds would the hearing sense still be there? What is it, or who is it, that hears? Is an audible sound necessary for the sense of hearing? Just sit with those questions for for the entire summer: what or who hears and must there be a sound for the hearing sense, the ear, to work? Don't look for the answer. Just sit with the questions. There is nothing more to do. Just sit with the questions. Even when you think you know, you probably don't. Be patient. Just keeping asking. Stay with this one sense (or choose another) and stay with it for the summer. Stick to it. Just that. Nothing else..

Thursday, May 26, 2011

What is "The Way"

We speak often of "The Way" or "The Path". The Noble Eightfold Path is 'The Way". But, what is the essence of "The Path/The Way"? Chinese Master Zhang Shangying teaches that the essence, the heart of "The Path/The Way" is simply this: virtue, humaneness, justice, and courtesy. If you think about it The Noble Eightfold Path (right understanding,thoughts, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, concentration) leads us to the four ways of being that Master Zhang Shangying teaches. When you can't recall the eight parts of the Noble Eightfold Path just think of being one of the four the Master teaches and you will be on "The Path/The Way".

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Be the Middle

I overheard someone today complaining about how they didn't get what they wanted. It was a trivial thing no matter how you looked at it. They were ranting so that anyone within ear-shot could hear. It was clear that this person had a strong sense of entitlement and that the person who stood between them and the object they sought was the target of their anger and the object the target of their greed. But, what was really behind the rant was the dissatisfaction they were experiencing because they could not have what they wanted. I wondered what would happen if they had succeeded. What would they want next? It was a living example of the workings of the ego---workings that I am all too familiar with and workings that I battle daily. I wanted to share the following with the person I encountered this morning, but they were in no mood to listen. So I will share it with you instead in hopes that it may bring some insight into your day.

between left and right,
just be exactly centered,
suspended like sun and moon
without any self

Guanzi

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Joplin Missouri

We must all keep the people in Joplin in our thoughts. They are suffering so much. Do what you can to help them. It is also a time for us to reflect on the impermanence of all things. Everything is subject to this universal law of impermanence. We may desperately cling to the notion that things can and will remain just as they are, but they don't. Our relentless craving for permanence only leads to pain, sorrow, lamentation, distress, and despair. Many of the people in Joplin have expressed these emotions, but there are others who see things "just as they are" --- they talk about getting past the tragic events and moving on to what's next. How truly wise they are. What can we learn form both groups? It would be wrong to ignore the suffering or treat it lightly. This suffering is real and in it are the lessons. It is in the suffering that we find liberation from suffering. Suffering and liberation---the same thing. This is what the Buddha teaches us to understand. All things are one including suffering and liberation. It may not make sense to you right now, but if you sit with this notion of the two as one, you may find a moment of awakening.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Keep Knocking

In Zen, when a novice shows up at the monastery for training he/she is refused entrance for up to a week. Each day they knock and each day they are rudely refused entry. When they are finally invited in they are put into guest quarters for a few more days to sit in meditation. All of this is to test their resolve for Zen training. It requires patience, fortitude, and unflinching commitment. I often think about the times I have wanted to enter into something I really wanted. Each time I wanted it NOW! What I discovered is that the things that come easy fade just as easily. It is the things that we have to work hard for, the things that are at first refused us that stick. What is it you have been refused that you wanted? Were you able to sit outside the door and knock and wait and knock and wait? What are your knocking at the door for these days? Can you sit in silence and patience? If not, then are you knocking at the right door?

Sunday, May 22, 2011

To Find The Way

To find The Way, to discover the Path there is one sure method---cease from making judgments. Yet, how hard it is. It is what we do, what we have learned. Nothing comes as easy as being for or against. But, this is where all our suffering begins; this making judgments. I know that despite my best efforts I still do. I have to constantly remind myself of these words from Master Sheng-yen from his verses, "Faith in Mind":

If you want the Way to appear
Be neither for nor against
For and against opposing each other
This is the mind's disease

Saturday, May 21, 2011

The Dog in the Forest

In Zen we work towards a return to our true mind; a mind free of discursive and discriminating thinking. Koans are a device that helps us on our Path to liberation. Koans can take many forms. Everything can be seen as a koan if we approach life mindfully aware of "just this". Today, let's carry with us a kind of koan from Master Dogen. It is not a tradition koan, but it might help us to free our minds from the traps and distractions were are prone to. Just carry this phrase with you today and see what shows up. Whatever does show up, don't chase it. Instead, recognize the thoughts then let them go. Here is the phrase:

The forest runs around the dog
.

Friday, May 20, 2011

It's Been A Week

For the past week I have been working with a group of volunteers to get the Grand Rapids Zen Center is shape to open on June 5. We held a ritual cleansing of the space on Sunday May 15. Expected 15 people---60 showed up. Perhaps this is Grand Rapids' way of telling us that we have come to the right place at the right moment. Is this the city's karma? Is it time for the Buddha Dharma to take root here? The Buddha taught that we must use upaya (expedient means) to bring the Dharma to the places and people who need it at the time and in a way that appeals to them. I ask that all who read this keep us in mind and send us the intention that what we do brings the Dharma to Grand Rapids in a way that attracts people to the Path and that their lives are the better for it.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Buddha's Birthday

This is the week that we celebrate Buddha's birthday. We celebrate not the man, but his teachings. After all, he was just a man, no different from the rest of us. What does set him apart is his enlightenment---his awakening to the Truth. Rather than keep that Truth to himself he dedicated his life to sharing that Truth with those who wanted to know it. The Truth he teaches (and I use the present tense deliberately) can liberate us from our cravings and graspings that lead to suffering, our own and others. There is nothing so much to celebrate as there is to remember. Remember the Four Noble Truths: Life is unsatisfactory; the cause of unsatisfactoriness is anger, greed, and delusion; there is a way to relieve the unsatisfactoriness; that way is the Noble Eightfold Path. As this week passes and we remember the birth of the Buddha, let us take the time to renew our practice as a sign of respect for his teachings.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Been Away/Bin Laden's death

I haven't posted anything because I have been working on the Grand Rapids Zen Center website. I will be working on it the rest of this week and will post a link to it here when it is finished. In the meantime, remember that our practice never stops. Everything we do is our practice. One question to consider is how you reacted and then responded to the death of Osama Bin Laden. Did you rejoice, feel good about it, experience some unease? How should a Buddhist respond? For those who have taken the precepts, how did your response square with the precept to honor all life? This is a challenging event for some. It might be worthwhile for us to take some time to explore our experience of his death.